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Two-thirds of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s top line is now in Pittsburgh. A day after Chris Minard was called up, Janne Pesonen was likewise promoted this afternoon.

So the one-third of that line still remained had to carry the load in San Antonio tonight. He did. Jeff Taffe had a goal and an assist to lead the Penguins to a 3-1 win. Connor James scored shorthanded to tie the game 1-1 and Tim Wallace redirected in a Taffe pass to give the Pens a 2-1 lead. John Curry made 31 saves for his first win of the season.

The Penguins played with 11 forwards and seven D, so unless Adam Henrich comes back from his lower body injury, I’d expect a call-up from Wheeling soon. You’d have to think Tommy Goebel would be at the front of the line. He’s been absolutely sizzling — seven goals and 15 points in six games. He had two more goals in a 6-1 Wheeling win tonight.

Meanwhile, here are my thoughts on how Pesonen will fare up top. He’s a smooth player with plenty of skill, so he’ll fit in at the NHL level no problem. He won’t look bad. But will he help Pittsburgh’s struggling offense? I have my doubts. In the AHL, he thrived with the puck on his stick. He probably won’t have that luxury in the NHL.

To wbhockey, I thought Minard was decent Thursday night in Phoenix. He had two good scoring chances, but had his shots blocked. He’s going to have to get those shots off to be successful. Let’s face it. As much as I have promoted the underdog story of Minard coming from humble roots to make the NHL, he’s going to have to produce to stay in Pittsburgh. There’s no room for sentimentality in the NHL.

To roy36 and eric, I have to be honest. I don’t know much about Clackson or Klotz. I know they’ll fight, but Clackson is 6-feet tall and Klotz has played a grand total of 2 AHL games. I think the Phantoms needed a guy like Gratton to sort of lead the way for those kids, so this trade seems like a good idea to me.

Someone was called up from San Antonio to Phoenix yesterday, but it has nothing to do with the Coyotes organization.

Chris Minard got off the plane in San Antonio, where the WBS Pens are set to play the Rampage tomorrow, then got on another plane and headed to Phoenix, where Pittsburgh will play tonight.

Minard is apparently filling in for the injured Pascal Dupuis. What I don’t know yet is whether Minard is being slotted into Dupuis’ spot with Ruslan Fedotenko and Sidney Crosby or if he’s just getting thrown onto the fourth line. I’ve been advocating trying Minard with Crosby for a few days now and since Minard’s got seven goals in seven games, there will be no better time to give it a shot than right now.

Why Minard over Janne Pesonen? My guess is this. Pittsburgh had a grand total of 11 shots in a 2-1 loss to San Jose on Tuesday. Minard’s greatest strength, by far, is shooting the puck. In the AHL, he’s almost fanatical about it. So it’s a good fit. Pesonen, to me, is more of a playmaker.

If Minard does get the spot on Crosby’s line, people will scoff. They’ll say Pittsburgh must be desperate if they’re putting a career minor leaguer in that role. They’ll note that Minard is 26 and was never drafted and played in places like Pensacola, San Angelo and Anchorage on his way to the AHL. That, to me, is snobbery at best and bigotry at worst. What difference does it make where he came from? If he can play, he can play.

People will say Minard is too slow to keep up with Crosby, but that’s not true. When WBS did its skills competition last year, Minard was second in the fastest skater contest, by one-thousandth of a second, to Jonathan Filewich. He can skate.

I’m not saying Minard is going to become an NHL all-star. In fact, I wonder if he can get his shot off against stronger, quicker NHL defensemen. But he’s done everything he’s been asked to do the last year-plus. At a time when the parent club’s offense is struggling, it’s worth giving him a chance in a scoring role. Who knows? He could become Crosby’s Robbie Brown.

Have you heard about the Palin curse? The Republican VP nominee drops the puck before a Flyers game and they lose six straight. She drops the puck before a St. Louis Blues game and goalie Many Legace trips over the carpet she walked out to center ice on and hurts himself. Well, good news for Penguins fans. Check out where the Governor was this morning.

OK, let me get to some hockey business, some personnel updates, that I sort of neglected yesterday. Adam Henrich left yesterday’s practice with what appeared to be a lower leg injury, so we’ll have to keep an eye on that. Joey Mormina is practicing regularly and should play this weekend in Texas. John Curry reports no injuries as well, so Dave Brown was returned to the Wheeling Nailers.

As far as the road trip the Penguins are about to leave on, today’s weather made sure that the team is very much looking forward to heading to San Antonio. Especially for the players and coaches who live in the Mountain Top area, where there are a few inches of slush on the ground. There is also a reporter who lives in Mountain Top who wishes his newspaper had sent him along to cover the trip.

To Rich, as far as Pittsburgh looking for a winger for Crosby, I think they’ll probably have to pick one up at some point. I know some people are a fan of Pascal Dupuis on the top two lines, but I’m not, and I also think that while Jordan Staal is a very useful piece on a good hockey team, he’s not going to fill the role Ryan Malone did last year. That said, I am an advocate for Chris Minard getting at least a trial on Crosby’s wing. He’s a shooter, plain and simple, exactly the type of player I think Crosby could turn into an NHL contributor. Janne Pesonen is a very skilled player. I like his game. But he’s more of a passer than a finisher and he’s most effective with the puck on his stick. I wonder how well he’d mesh with Crosby in that sense.

To TK1129, the way I understand it, Ned Havern looked around for jobs in the offseason, found that most teams were offering AHL-ECHL two-ways and decided to move on instead. He’s a smart guy with lots of personality. I suspect he’ll be successful in whatever line of work he has chosen.

To jiggs33, if it’s just a matter of on-ice performance, I’m sure the Penguins will want to sign J.P. Cote. He’s been a very good player and has even worn an A at times in the early going. I don’t know the inner workings of the contract talks, however, so it’s hard for me to say more. Is there a money issue? Are the Penguins only offering an AHL deal? I can’t answer those questions.

As far as Bissonnette goes, I think he would clear waivers. I don’t think that’s what is keeping him in Pittsburgh. I think he’s staying up because grit is not a strong point with that club and he does grit very well. And don’t be deceived by the fact that he’s listed at 210 pounds. I’d bet there aren’t more than a handful of players stronger than him in the NHL.

Had a chance to talk to Bill Thomas for almost 10 minutes after practice. He’s a good interview. Check out a story on him in tomorrow’s paper. I think he suffers from a bit if a perception problem. He has a common man’s name and a blue-collar hometown (Pittsburgh), so people think he’s some kind of grinder. He’s not, really. He’s a skilled player with wheels. I’ll bet he puts up some numbers here.

I also asked Dan Bylsma about John Curry’s rocky start to the season, what with the injuries and all after starting the year in Sweden. He had an interesting take. He said it’s less rocky than the Las Vegas-to-Germany-to-Wheeling start Curry had last season. That’s a good point, I guess. He might be in a better spot now than he was on Oct. 27, 2007.

Looking ahead to the Pens’ visit to San Antonio this weekend, I was looking at some Rampage stats. And there was Francis Lessard, third in the league with 60 PIMs. I miss that guy in the East Division. Here’s a link to some of his work.

If you look a little further down the PIM chart, you see, at No. 15, old pal Guillaume Lefebvre. In six games with Springfield, he has two assists, a plus-2 rating and 30 PIMs. Sounds like a good start for him.

I remember the night (Feb. 15, 2000, IIRC) he fought Sven Butenschon, disposed of him, then grabbed Greg Crozier, disposed of him, then went after Milan Kraft. He only stopped because he was distracted by a goalie fight between Sebastien Caron and Neil Little. I imagine the look on his face when he stopped trying to punch Kraft was like the look on Ogie Oglethorpe’s face when he noticed Ned Braden beginning his dance. Good times.

A look at the Wheeling Nailers statsheet is impressive too, by the way, as some of you have noticed in the comment section. Tommy Goebel leads the league in scoring with 13 points in five games. Nick Johnson leads the league with six goals. This Andrew Lord character has 2 goals, an assist and 26 PIMs in four games and he’s a big, physical center. That’s shaping up as a good, young team.

To roy36, Engelland has indeed been handling the heavyweight chores so far, and I guess that’s not ideal because you’d like to see him focus on playing defense, but it’s not bad in this sense: At least two of Engelland’s fights have been an effort to change the momentum of a game and when a veteran leader like him drops the gloves and gets his hands dirty, it sends a message to the bench that it’s time to work better than if a guy like Jon Mirasty, who would fight even if there wasn’t a hockey game going on, drops his. Does that make sense?

Regarding Boogaard, I think he’s actually been pretty effective on the forecheck when he’s been in the lineup. But with Thomas coming down and the aforementioned Nailers putting up huge numbers in Wheeling, yeah, he probably has to do more to keep his spot.

To Penguins23, last I heard, Ned Havern has hung up the blades and retired the axe.

I was on my way back from the office after covering a football game this afternoon, so I didn’t see much of the first period of the Penguins’ 5-4 loss to Portland, but this number makes me think John Curry, making his second start of the season, was a little rusty. The Penguins outshot the Pirates 16-9 in the first period and were losing 3-0. I know this much. Portland’s fourth goal was one Curry usually stops — a shot from the goal line along the ice that made it past his skates and in.

Down three goals, the Penguins cranked up the desperation offense for the second straight night and nearly pulled one off. Chris Minard with three more points on a goal and two assists. Jeff Taffe with two more goals. Janne Pesonen sees his points streak end at six.

Bill Thomas made his WBS debut. He started on a line with Luca Caputi and Dustin Jeffrey, but when the Penguins were scrambling to try to tie it, he was on the ice with Taffe, Pesonen, et al. I think he managed an assist in there somewhere.

An officiating issue for the second straight night as well. In a span of a few minutes in the second period, Jonathan Filewich and Dave Gove both got hit from behind, smashing their heads into the boards, with no call from referee Ghislain Hebert. It’s hard to see plays like that online — it’s not like they’re going to replay something like that — but both hits were dirty enough that J.P. Cote came in, gloves off, to confront the hitter both times.

The Penguins are 2-2 on the first four games of their seven-game road trip. That’s not horrible, but you’d think they could get a little more going offensively early in games and when on the power play. It might be in their best interests to stockpile some points in the standings while Pesonen, Taffe, Minard and Thomas, to name four, are still here.

I have to head into the office to help on a football Friday, but before I do, some basic notes from tonight’s game, a 3-2 Manchester win over the Penguins.

Manchester took a 2-0 lead thanks to a couple of impressive individual plays by a couple of very talented players. In the first period, Teddy Purcell skated powerfully down the right wing with Ben Lovejoy on his back and made a one-handed centering pass for a Gabe Gauthier goal. In the third period, Viatcheslav Boynov made a ridiculously perfect shot under the crossbar from the right half-boards.

Lovejoy and Jeff Taffe scored with the goalie pulled in the final 90 seconds to make things very interesting. The Penguins buzzed around the net at the final horn too, but last-gasp shots by Lovejoy and Ryan Stone went just wide. A pretty amazing finish. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a team score three times with the goalie pulled and I almost did.

Bill Thomas has been assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. He will not play tonight in Manchester but he could be in the lineup as soon as tomorrow in Portland.

Is this a prelude to a call-up? Depends on whether Matt Cooke is healthy or not. If he is, then probably not. Michel Therrien’s history indicates he likes to carry one extra D and one extra forward, and when Hal Gill gets healthy, that’s exactly what he’ll have. I think Janne Pesonen or Chris Minard is going to get a shot at some point, but I don’t think it’s imminent.

Thomas, a right wing from the Pittsburgh area, is a potential star at the AHL level. He had 24 goals with San Antonio last year. If no one goes up, the Penguins’ top three lines look extremely formidable.

You gotta feel bad for Michael Leighton. He was awesome for Carolina for about two and a half periods tonight, then bang. A Malkin shot on the power play changes direction twice, a world-class 2-on-1 into an empty cage by Fedotenko and a Talbot breakaway in a span of about four minutes. That’s what talent can do.

Also, Marc-Andre Fleury came within three or four feet of scoring a goal on the empty net and Paul Bissonnette won another fight. Dropyourgloves.com has Bissonnette at 5-0-1 in his scraps so far this season, and I can’t really disagree.

To TK1129, there was a story in the Lowell Sun last season that explained the Lowell Devils attendance situation really well. Basically, they pay rent on a sliding scale. If revenues are at $3 million, they pay about $4,000 per game. If revenues exceed $4.5 million, they pay more than $11,000 per game. So if those terms are still accurate, it’s in the Devils’ best interest if attendance stays low. Let’s face it. Most NHL teams lose money on their AHL affiliates. It seems like New Jersey accepts the fact that Lowell will operate in the red. They just try to keep the losses to a minimum.

And while Janne Pesonen would certainly be worthy of a call-up already, I’m sort of advocating Chris Minard getting a shot in a scoring role first. I’ll have a big story about the topic in Sunday’s paper. Check it out.

To roy36, Daryl Sydor is a more than adequate replacement for Gill at this point. I haven’t heard anything about a call-up or Richmond or anyone. I think it would be an interesting decision between Richmond and Lovejoy if a call-up is needed. I actually think J.P. Cote might be playing as well as any D on the roster, but he’s not signed to a contract. so that complicates matters.

To wbs20, I’m not a Wings fan. I’m a fan of the human race. And on the ice — I don’t know him personally — Claude Lemieux was a despicable human being. To LGP, Robitaille never did anything as cowardly as Lemieux’s attack on Kris Draper and subsequent turtle job to Darren McCarty.

To nafs, Barry and eric, I liked the Neulion video just fine from Lowell last night. I thought the audio was a little spotty, but not bad. And Barry, I was able to find a little button to get the WBS audio, but it certainly would have been easy to miss.

To wbhockey1418, here’s what I mean about Hershey’s power play. How many of the 16 goals they scored in those back-to-back games early this month were wide-open slam dunks at the post on the power play after two or three nifty passes in a row? Half of them? Was there anything any goalie in the world could have done about those plays? My point wasn’t that Berkhoel magically shut down the Hershey power play last Sunday. It’s that no power play can operate that efficiently for the whole season, even with a trio as potent as Mink-Aucoin-Giroux up front.

But KJ makes a good point. It’s not like the Penguins dominated Hershey in that game. They caught the Bears in a 3-in-3, finished their chances very eficiently and got some great goaltending from Berkhoel. It’s a great win. No one’s doubting that. But is it the kind of thing that can be duplicated the next time the teams meet?

To hjs470, I know nothing about anything Deryk Engelland’s been fighting. I’ll ask around at practice next week.

Finally, thanks for the tip, Chowder. Here’s a link to Ben Lovejoy’s blog. Last I heard, he wasn’t sure if he was going to keep writing it this season. The poll at the top of the blog indicates great public support for it to continue. I would have voted yes but the balloting was closed.

The final score tonight — 5-0 Penguins over Lowell — is a little bit misleading in this sense: Goalie Adam Berkhoel was the star of the show. He was awesome in the first period, making 17 saves and keeping the game scoreless until the Penguins offense started clicking midway through the second.

Berkhoel finished with 46 saves. His performance is evidence that the Penguins didn’t have a goaltending problem when they were getting smoked by Hershey in back-to-back games earlier this month. They had a Hershey’s-power-play-is-red-hot problem.

When the Penguins offense started clicking, it was the first line doing the damage. Jeff Taffe, Janne Pesonen and Chris Minard combined for four goals. Minard moved into a tie with Hershey’s Graham Mink and Alex Giroux for the AHL lead in goals with six. He and Pesonen have at least one point in every game this season. “Pesonen’s a specimen,” is how guest color analyst Tom Grace described it.

Also, T.J. Kemp had two assists and a plus-4. Maybe he’s catching his stride now that he’s getting healthier.

Anyway, while Dan Bylsma said he reserved the right to massage the captain voting in the locker room if he had to, he said electoral manipulation was not required in this case. Gove has the unquestioned respect of his teammates. He’s a veteran character guy and his work ethic is top notch. Easy choice, really.

Connor James and Ryan Stone will be the primary alternates, with Deryk Engelland filling in when one of the above three aren’t available.

John Curry, meanwhile, did not practice today due to his bad back. Curry was scheduled to make the trip to New England, however, and if bus travel doesn’t do him in, he could be back in the net by the weekend. Dave Brown was called up from Wheeling just in case Curry can’t go.

Also, Jean-Michel Daoust didn’t practice today and Bylsma said that while an MRI is still pending, it is believed he has a broken jaw. Here’s the thing, though. Daoust suffered the injury when he was hit in the face by a rising Danny Richmond slap shot in the second period of last Friday’s game with Bridgeport. Daoust returned to the ice and played the third period of that game. With a broken jaw. That, as they say, is a hockey player.

Joey Mormina (groin) also skated today and will make the trip to New England to skate with the team and get back in game shape. He’s maybe a week, at most, away from returning to the lineup.

So that about covers it on a busy day at the Ice Box.

One link before I go. This story leaves me wondering what the arena here in scenic Wilkes-Barre Township will be called in the near future. There are already two Wells Fargo Arenas in this country — one here and one here. Could there be a third? Maybe they’d have to go with something like Wellls Fargo Pavillion or something to differentiate. Maybe the “at Casey Plaza” part would differentiate it enough. Anyone have any other ideas?

A winner of first-place honors in the blogging category of the 2012 Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors awards, Penguins Insider was created to give local hockey fans an interactive, in-depth way to follow the team they so passionately support. The blog's author, beat writer Jonathan Bombulie, has been covering the team since its inception in 1999. Contact him at jbombulie@aol.com

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